The IBPPM RAS Collection of Rhizospheric Microorganisms is a participant in the international project “Banking Rhizosphere Micro-Organisms. European–Russian initiative to set up a network of rhizosphere microbiological resources centres” (BRIO; 2011–2013) (FP7 Theme 2: Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology). The project aims to create a single database of rhizosphere-isolated culture collection microorganisms and is being conducted by a Russian–European consortium including five European and three Russian science organizations: Federal Public Planning Service – Science Policy, Belgium; Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium; Ghent University, Belgium; Agroscope Reckenholz–Tänikon, Research Station, Ecological Farming Systems group, Switzerland; University of Torino, Italy; Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Russia; Institute of Ecology and Genetics of Microorganisms (IEGM), Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Perm, Russia; Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants and Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences (IBPPM RAS), Saratov, Russia. The project manager is Dr. Philippe Desmeth, president of the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC).

The BRIO 1st annual meeting was held in Saratov, Russia, on 9–11 October, 2012. Present at the meeting were representatives from all organizations involved in the project. One of the meeting’s goals was to discuss the results from stage 1 of the project and the plans for future years. Reports on the work already done were heard, and a discussion was held on individual directions in the work packages, the European regulatory and legal framework, and intellectual property rights. Project manager Philippe Desmeth gave talks to Saratov microbiologists on the concept of biological research centers and on the international program MIRRI – Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure. The meeting also included presentations by invited representatives of Russian biotechnological companies and microbial culture collections from Krasnodar, Perm, Pushchino, and Saratov on their applied research work on the use of microbial strains in the cleanup of the environment from oil products and as biofertilizers and biopesticides.

The BRIO 2nd annual meeting was held in Perm, Russia, on 9–13 September, 2013. It was organized by the Institute of Ecology and Genetics of Microorganisms (IEGM), Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.